The Weekender: Post Halloween Blues

I’ve always liked week-long celebrations, despite never making it to Mardi Gras or Carnaval. It seems a gyp that Halloween is a one-nighter. I don’t worship evil, mind you, but I love lighting the pumpkins up at watching them glow each evening. Don’t want to go broke giving out candy for 4-7 consecutive evenings, but I’m open to interpretation and evolution. Another golf weekend is upon us and I’ve got a few putts to convert.

1. Last big Indy event of the year is being played in Shanghai. Registered a blip or two on the radar screen when USA PGA Tour announced that money is unofficial, but win is not, at least for Tour members. A dig/shot at Luke Donald? Who knew/cared? Looks like a final-round battle between Sweden-South Africa-Australia-Northern Ireland-England-Germany-China…Luke should be safe in POY voting.

2. Yani Tseng has not yet confirmed a PGA Tour appearance (when she does, she’ll lead off The Weekender) at the Puerto Rico stop. It wouldn’t be a bad move for her, as long as she handles the pre-event press properly. I never let our top female golfer (now playing D-1 golf in the SEC) play for our boys team, as I didn’t want her to deal with the only-girl issue or the change-my-game-based-solely-on-distance issue. She thanked me after her final season, although she battled me for four years prior. Point is, Yani should not care about the result nor change her game to play BASH. Ask Michelle Wie if you are still not convinced…remember her promise? Hopefully Vijay Singh will keep his mouth shut this time and not act the jackass (not that he’s the force he was when Annika played at Colonial.)

3. Courses are still open (even the munis) in western New York during this mild November. Here’s hoping it sticks. I’ve been out to Byrncliff, Delaware and Sheridan in the last week and enjoyed myself tremendously. One note of caution: pack a towel to clean the mud off your ball and leave the white slacks in the closet.

4. Presidents Cup is coming. I’m excited but have to balance this enthusiasm with the demands of Fantasy Football. I think it will be a great team match, decided on the last day, and I envision the USA going down to defeat (or is it the World Team claiming victory?) that Sunday.

5. If you want a hidden gem or an underlier, check out the Champions Tour season-ender this weekend on PGA Tour.Com. The Charles Schwab cup is being played on a great old course in San Francisco (Harding Park, an Alister Mackenzie muni) and his highness, Sir Fred of Couples, is in the mix with Mark Calcavecchia right behind.

6. The Ladies are hard at work in Japan, at the Mizuno Classic. Currently, Momoko Ueda is 13 under and 3 free of Sakura Yokomine. A smattering of USA flags are on the leaderboard, with Mina Harigae the closest, 4 strokes behind.